The request form is available online on the NBPR website at

Procedures to file a request to the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland for the Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program between the State Intellectual Property Office of The P. R. of China (SIPO) and the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (NBPR) The pilot period of this PPH pilot program will commence on January 1, 2013 for a duration of one year and ending on December 31, 2013. The pilot period may be extended if necessary until the SIPO and NBPR receive the sufficient number of PPH requests to adequately assess the feasibility of PPH program. The Offices may also terminate the PPH pilot program if the volume of participation exceeds manageable level, or for any other reason. Ex Ante notice will be published if the PPH pilot program is terminated Request to the NBPR [0001]An applicant should file a request for accelerated examination under the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) to the NBPR by submitting an requesting accelerated examination under the PPH accompanied by the relevant supporting documents. The requirements for an to the NBPR for accelerated examination under the PPH are given in the following sections. Relevant supporting documentation is discussed in a later section (paragraphs [0003] to [0004]) as is the general NBPR procedure envisaged at this time (paragraph [0005]). The request form is available online on the NBPR website at http://www.prh.fi/en/patentit/pph/request_for_pph.html Part I- PPH using national work products from SIPO Requirements for requesting accelerated examination under the PPH Pilot Program at the NBPR [0002] There are four requirements for requesting accelerated examination under the PPH pilot program at the NBPR. These are: Page 1 / 26

a) Either: i) the NBPR validly claims priority under the Paris Convention from at least one corresponding SIPO (s); ii) the NBPR is the national phase of a which has no priority claims, or iii) the NBPR is the national phase of a which validly claims priority from a SIPO national, or iv) the NBPR validly claims priority from a which has no priority claims, or v) the NBPR is the national phase of a which validly claims priority from a which has no priority claims, or vi) the NBPR is a divisional of any of the above. Examples are provided in Annex 1. b) At least one corresponding SIPO has one or more claims that are determined to be patentable/allowable by SIPO examiner in the latest office action, even if the is not granted patent yet. SIPO office actions include: (a) Decision to Grant a Patent (b) First/Second/Third/ Office Action, (c) Decision of Refusal, (d) Reexamination Decision, and (e) Invalidation Decision. Claims are also determined to be allowable/patentable in the following circumstances: If the SIPO office action does not explicitly state that a particular claim is allowable/patentable, the applicant must include explanation accompanying the request for participation in the PPH pilot program that no rejection has been made in the SIPO office action regarding that claim, and therefore, the claim is deemed to be allowable/patentable by the SIPO. For example, if claims are not shown in the item of 6. the Opinion on the Conclusion of Examination ( 审查的结论性意见 ) about Claims ( 关于权利要求书 ) in the First Notice of the Opinion on Examination( 第一次审查意见通知书 ) or 5. the Opinion on the Conclusion of Examination ( 审查的结论性意见 ) about Claims ( 关于权利要求书 ) in the Second/Third/ Notice of the Opinion on Examination( 第次审查意见通知书 ) of the SIPO, those claims may be deemed to be implicitly identified to be allowable/patentable and then the applicant must include the above explanation. c) All claims on file, as originally filed or as amended, for examination at NBPR under the PPH must sufficiently correspond to one or more of those claims indicated as patentable/allowable in SIPO in order for the NBPR to qualify for accelerated examination under the PPH at the NBPR. Page 2 / 26

Claims are considered to "sufficiently correspond" where, accounting for differences due to translations and claim format, the claims in the NBPR are of the same or similar scope as the claims in SIPO, or the claims in the NBPR are narrower in scope than the claims in SIPO. In this regard, a claim that is narrower in scope occurs when a SIPO claim is amended to be further limited by an additional feature that is supported in the specification (description and/or claims). Narrower claims can be written as dependent claims A claim in the NBPR which introduces a new/different category of claims to those claims indicated as allowable in SIPO is not considered to sufficiently correspond. If, for example, the SIPO claims only contain claims to a process of manufacturing a product, then the claims in the NBPR are not considered to sufficiently correspond if the claims of the NBPR introduce product claims that are dependent on the corresponding process claims. Any claims amended or added after the grant of the request for participation in the PPH Pilot Program do not need to sufficiently correspond to the claims indicated as patentable/allowable in the SIPO. d) The NBPR has not yet issued a Communication of Approval. (The heading of the communication is Hyväksyvä välipäätös. ) Required documents for accelerated examination under the PPH Pilot Program at the NBPR [0003] The following documentation is needed to support a request for accelerated examination under the PPH pilot program at the NBPR: a) a copy of all office actions (which are relevant to the patentability) in the corresponding SIPO (s), and translations of them. Office actions are documents which relate to substantive examination and which were sent to the applicant by the SIPO examiner. The applicant can either provide the office actions together with the request for acceleration under the PPH or request that the NBPR obtain the documents from the SIPO document database. Both Finnish and English are acceptable as translation languages. Machine translations are admissible, but if it is impossible for the examiner to understand the outline of the translated office action or claims due to insufficient translation, the examiner can request the applicant to resubmit translations. Page 3 / 26

b) a copy of the claims found to be patentable/allowable by SIPO and translations of them. The applicant can either provide the claims together with the request for acceleration under the PPH or request that the NBPR obtain the claims from the SIPO document database. Both Finnish and English are acceptable as translation languages. The indications provided in the requirement [0003](a) above regarding machine translations also apply to this requirement [0003](b). a complete claim correspondence table showing the relationship between the claims of the NBPR for accelerated examination under the PPH and the claims of the corresponding SIPO considered patentable/allowable by SIPO. The claims correspondence table must indicate how the claims in the NBPR correspond to the patentable/allowable claims in the SIPO. The claim correspondence table must be written in Finnish or English. c) copies of the references cited by the SIPO examiner. If the references are patent documents, it will not be necessary to submit these documents, as they will usually be available to the NBPR. If the NBPR does not have access to relevant patent documents, the applicant must submit these documents at the request of the NBPR. Non-patent literature must always be submitted. Translations of cited references are unnecessary. In those rare situations where the SIPO has not been published, and therefore the SIPO file wrapper is not available via the SIPO document database, the applicant will be responsible for providing the necessary documents to the NBPR. [0004] The relevant information is provided by the applicant by filling out the form for requesting accelerated examination under the PPH Pilot Program (see Annex 3) which is available on the NBPR web site. The relevant supporting documentation should be attached. The applicant need not provide further copies of documentation if they have already been submitted to the NBPR through simultaneous or past procedures. Procedure for accelerated examination under the PPH Pilot Program at the NBPR [0005]The applicant fills out the form requesting accelerated examination under the PPH Pilot Program available on the NBPR web page http://www.prh.fi/en/patentit/pph/request_for_pph.html and includes all the relevant supporting documents. The PPH Administrator, who will be an NBPR patent examiner, will consider the request. If the requirements for accelerated examination under the PPH are not met, the PPH Administrator will notify the Page 4 / 26

applicant that the has not been allowed entry to the PPH and will provide an explanation as to why entry to the PPH was denied. The applicant is free to take any possible correcting action necessary and again request acceleration under the PPH until the NBPR issues a Communication of Approval.. If all requirements for accelerated examination under the PPH are met, the PPH Administrator will notify the applicant that the has been allowed entry to the PPH. The PPH Administrator will notify the relevant examining group that the has qualified for entry to the PPH and the relevant examiner will then conduct an accelerated examination of the. If the request for accelerated examination is not granted, the applicant will be notified that the will await action in its regular turn. Page 5 / 26

Part II- PPH using the international work products from the SIPO Request to the NBPR [0001] An applicant can request accelerated examination by a prescribed procedure including submission of relevant documents on an which is filed with the NBPR and satisfies the following requirements under the NBPR- SIPO Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program based on international work products (-PPH Pilot Program). The Offices may terminate the -PPH Pilot Program early if the volume of participation exceeds manageable levels, or for any other reason. Notice will be published if the -PPH Pilot Program is terminated. Requirements for requesting accelerated examination under the -PPH Pilot Program at the NBPR [0002]The which is filed with the NBPR and to which the applicant files a request under the -PPH must satisfy the following requirements: a) The latest work product in the international phase of a corresponding to the ( international work product ), namely the Written Opinion of International Searching Authority (WO/ISA), the Written Opinion of International Examining Authority (WO/IPEA), or the Preliminary Examination Report (IPER), indicates that at least one claim is patentable/allowable. Note that the ISA and the IPEA which produce the WO/ISA, WO/IPEA, and the IPER are limited to SIPO, but if priority is claimed, the priority claim can be referred to an in any Office (see example A in Annex II: Application ZZ can be any national ). The applicant cannot file a request under -PPH on the basis of an International Search Report (ISR) only. In case any observation is described in Box VIII of WO/ISA, WO/IPEA, or IPER which forms the basis of a -PPH request, the applicant must explain why the claim(s) is/are not subject to the observation, irrespective of the fact that an amendment is submitted to correct the observation noted in Box VIII. The will not be eligible for participating in the -PPH Pilot Program if the applicant does not explain why the claim(s) is/are not subject to the observation. In this regard, however, it will not affect the decision on the eligibility of the whether the explanation is adequate and/or whether the amendment submitted overcomes the observation in Box VIII. Page 6 / 26

b) the relationship between the and the corresponding international satisfies one of the following requirements: i) the is a national phase of the corresponding international (see figures A, A and A in Annex 2) ii) the is a national as a basis of the priority claim of the corresponding international (see figure B in Annex 2) iii) the is a national phase of an international claiming priority from the corresponding international (see figure C in Annex 2). iv) The is a national claiming priority from the corresponding international (See figure D in Annex 2) v) The is the derivate (divisional etc.) of the which satisfies one of the above requirements (i)-(iv). (See figures E1 and E2 in Annex 2.) c) all claims, as originally filed or as amended, for examination under the -PPH must sufficiently correspond to one or more of those claims indicated to be patentable/allowable in the latest international work product of the corresponding international. Claims are considered to sufficiently correspond where, accounting for differences due to translations and claim format, the claims of the are of the same or similar scope as the claims indicated to be patentable/allowable in the latest international work product, or the claims of the are narrower in scope than the claims indicated to be patentable/allowable in the latest international work product. In this regard, a claim that is narrower in scope occurs when a claim indicated to be patentable/allowable in the latest international product is amended to be further limited by an additional feature that is supported in the specification (description and/or claims) of the. Narrower claims can be written as dependent claims. A claim of the which introduces a new/different category of claims to those claims indicated to be patentable/allowable in the latest international work product is not considered to sufficiently correspond. For example, if the claims indicated to be patentable/allowable in the latest international work product only contain claims to a process of manufacturing a product, then the claims of the are not considered to sufficiently correspond if the claims of the introduce product claims that are dependent on the corresponding process claims. Any claims amended or added after the grant of the request for participation in the -PPH Pilot Program need not to sufficiently correspond to the claims indicated as patentable/allowable in the latest international product. Page 7 / 26

d) The NBPR has not yet issued a Communication of Approval. (The heading of the communication is Hyväksyvä välipäätös. ) Required documents for accelerated examination under the -PPH Pilot Program at the NBPR [0003] The following documentation will be needed to support a request for accelerated examination under the -PPH Pilot Program at the NBPR: a) a copy of the latest international work product which indicated the claims to be patentable/allowable and their Finnish or English translations if they are not in English. In case the satisfies the relationship [0002](b)(i), the applicant does not need to submit a copy of the International Preliminary Report on Patentability (IPRP) and any English translations thereof because a copy of these documents is already contained in the file-wrapper of the. In addition, if the copy of the latest international work product and the copy of the translation are available via PATENTSCOPE, then the applicant does not need to submit these documents, unless otherwise requested by the NBPR. (WO/ISA and IPER are usually available as IPRP Chapter I and IPRP Chapter II respectively in 30 months after the priority date). Both Finnish and English are acceptable as translation languages. Machine translations are admissible, but if it is impossible for the examiner to understand the outline of the translated office action or claims due to insufficient translation, the examiner can request the applicant to resubmit translations. b) a copy of the set of claims which the latest international work product of the corresponding international indicated to be patentable/allowable and their Finnish or English translations if they are not in English. The indications provided in the requirement [0003](a) above regarding machine translations also apply to this requirement [0003](b). If the copy of the set of claims which are indicated to be patentable/allowable is available via PATENTSCOPE 1, e.g. the international Patent Gazette has been published, the applicant need not submit this document unless otherwise requested by the NBPR. c) a copy of the references cited in the latest international work product of the international corresponding to the. 1 http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/search-adv.jsp Page 8 / 26

If the reference is a patent document, the applicant is not required to submit it. In case the NBPR has difficulty in obtaining the document, however, the applicant may be asked to submit it. Non-patent literature must always be submitted. Translations of cited references are unnecessary. d) a complete claim correspondence table showing the relationship between the claims of the NBPR for accelerated examination under the -PPH and the claims indicated to be patentable/allowable. If the claims simply are literal translations, then it is sufficient that the applicant writes They are the same in the table. If the claims are not literal translations, then it is necessary to explain the sufficient correspondence of each claim based on the criterion [0002](c). The claim correspondence table must be written in Finnish or English. [0004]If the applicant has already submitted the above-mentioned documents (a)-(d) to the NBPR through simultaneous or past procedures, then the applicant may incorporate the documents by reference and is thus not required to attach the documents. Procedure for accelerated examination under the -PPH Pilot Program at the NBPR [0005]The applicant fills out the form requesting accelerated examination under the -PPH Pilot Program (see Annex 4) available on the NBPR web pagehttp://www.prh.fi/en/patentit/pph/request_for_pph.html and includes all the relevant supporting documents. The -PPH Administrator, who is a NBPR patent examiner, will consider the request. If all requirements for accelerated examination under the -PPH have not been met, then the -PPH Administrator will notify the applicant that the has not been allowed entry to the -PPH and will provide an explanation as to why entry to the -PPH was denied. The applicant is free to take any possible correcting action necessary and again request acceleration under the -PPH until the NBPR issues a Communication of Approval. If all requirements for accelerated examination under the -PPH have been met, then the -PPH Administrator will notify the applicant that the has been allowed entry to the -PPH. The -PPH Administrator will notify the relevant examining group that the has qualified for entry to the -PPH and the relevant examiner will then conduct an accelerated examination of the. If the request for accelerated examination is not granted, the applicant will be notified that the will await action in its regular turn. Page 9 / 26

ANNEX 1 Page 10 / 26

Examples of NBPR s eligible for PPH Figure A: SIPO claim Indication of patentable claim(s) or Grant NBPR Request for PPH Figure B: SIPO claim Indication of patentable claim(s) or Grant DO*/FI Request for PPH * DO Designated Office Page 11 / 26

Figure C: SIPO 1 Indication of patentable claim(s) or Grant SIPO2 claim claim NBPR Request for PPH Figure D: SIPO 1 Domestic priority claim SIPO 2 claim Indication of patentable claim(s) or Grant NBPR Request for PPH Page 12 / 26

Figure E: SIPO NBPR 1 claim Indication of patentable claim(s) or Grant Divisional NBPR 2 Request for PPH Figure F: Without priority claim claim DO/CN DO/FI Indication of patentable claim(s) or Grant Request for PPH Page 13 / 26

Figure G: DO/CN DO/FI Indication of patentable claim(s) or Grant Request for PPH Figure H: DO/CN Indication of patentable claim(s) or Grant claim NBPR Request for PPH Figure I: DO/CN Indication of patentable claim(s) or Grant claim DO/FI Request for PPH Page 14 / 26

Figure J: Without priority claim SIPO claim DO/CN DO/FI Indication of patentable claim(s) or Grant Request for PPH Page 15 / 26

ANNEX 2 Page 16 / 26

Examples of the s eligible for -PPH (A) The is a national phase of the corresponding international. OK RO/ -- WO IPER ISA/CN IPEA/CN DO/FI DO DO PPH (A ) The is a national phase of the corresponding international applicatio n. (The corresponding international claims priority from a national.) ZZ Application RO/ -- Claim WO IPER ISA/CN IPEA/CN DO/FI DO DO OK PPH ZZ=any office Page 17 / 26

(A ) The is a national phase of the corresponding international applicatio n. (The corresponding international claims priority from an international.) RO/ -- RO/ -- ISA/-- Claim WO IPER ISA/CN IPEA/CN DO/FI DO DO OK PPH (B) The is a national as a basis of the priority claim of the corresponding international. NBPR OK PPH RO/ -- Claim WO IPER ISA/CN IPEA/CN Page 18 / 26

(C) The is a national phase of an international claiming priority from the corresponding international. WO IPER OK RO/ -- ISA/CN IPEA/CN Claim RO/ -- ISA/-- DO/FI DO DO PPH (D) The is a national claiming foreign/domestic priority from the corresponding international. RO/ -- WO IPER ISA/CN IPEA/CN OK Claim NBPR PPH Page 19 / 26

(E1) The is a divisional of an which satisfies the requirement (A). OK RO/-- WO IPER ISA/CN IPEA/CN DO/FI DO DO Divisional NBPR PPH (E2) The is an claiming domestic priority from an which satisfies the requirement (B). NBPR OK Claim WO IPER Claim NBPR PPH RO/ -- ISA/CN IPEA/CN Page 20 / 26

ANNEX 3 Page 21 / 26

PPH REQUEST Request for Accelerated Examination at the NBPR under the Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program between the NBPR and the SIPO 1 NBPR number: Corresponding SIPO number(s): 2 Either: a) Copy of SIPO office action(s) in English attached: or Copy of original Chinese SIPO office action(s) translated into either English or Finnish attached or b) SIPO office action(s) available via the SIPO document database: or c) SIPO office action(s) on file from previous PPH : NBPR number: 3 Either: a) Copy of claims of corresponding SIPO attached or Copy of the Chinese claims of the corresponding SIPO translated into either English or Finnish attached or b) Claims of corresponding SIPO available via SIPO document database or c) SIPO claims on file from previous PPH NBPR number: 4 Translation version of foreign language citation attached (Please note that it is not necessary to provide translation of documents. However, applicant will be free to file translations to allow prompt consideration of the citations if they so desire.) 5 Claim correspondence table completed: Page 22 / 26

Claim correspondence table: NBPR claims Patentable claims in SIPO s Explanation regarding the correspondence Page 23 / 26

ANNEX 4 Page 24 / 26

PPH- REQUEST Request for Accelerated Examination at the NBPR using the international work products under the Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program Between the NBPR and the SIPO (-PPH pilot program) FI number: Corresponding number: For the purposes of participation in the PPH, the following documents should be attached/are required: 1. Either: 1.1 A copy of WO-ISA or IPER and translation thereof in English or Finnish or Request to obtain documents in 1.1 via PATENTSCOPE 2. Either: 2.1 A copy of all claims determined to be patentable/allowable by the ISA or IPEA or Request to obtain documents in 2.1 via the PATENTSCOPE 3. Translation of the documents in 2. in English or Finnish. 4. Copies of all documents cited in the WO-ISA or IPER (except for patent documents) 5. Claims correspondence table Page 25 / 26

NBPR claim Corresponding claim Comments Page 26 / 26